Crazy-L always makes a face. I used to think it was for the camera, like one of those fake smiles kids have when their mom says ’say cheese’. Nope, the more I watch him the more I realize he is always making a face. This is his normal.

This is a one light setup. Key light SB600 1/2 power about 3 feet from subject 45 degrees camera left shot through a shoot through umbrella. Camera settings are balanced for ambient fill at 1/80 f7.1 ISO 100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Flash was gelled with a 1/4 CTO for warmth. Learn to light at Strobist.com. Happy Snapping!

More baby feet, and more of Grandpa’s hard working hands. I wish I had a fancy quote for baby feet, they make me feel closer to heaven. Although I had a friend and her baby girl kind of had stinky feet. I still don’t know how you get a baby to have stinky feet.

This is a one light set up. A SB600 1/8 power directly above and behind camera about 2 or 3 feet from subject shot through a shoot through umbrella. I am shooting about 2 feet from subject. Camera set at 1/80 f3.5 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. The baby’s legs were wrapped with a piece of black velvet that was spread out to make a light sucking black background.

B-Cookie holding Grandpa P’s hand. Newborn babies are great because they tend to sleep a lot and ignore the camera.

This one is a two light set up.
1. Key light SB600 1/4 power 3 feet from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. Fill light LumoPro 120 1/8 power 3 feet from subject 45 degrees camera left through a shoot through umbrella.
3. There is a large North facing window behind the camera.
I am shooting about 2 feet away from subject with a lower shutter speed to capture ambient light, settings 1/30 f7.1 ISO 200. Shot with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. I wanted very gentle soft even light. Baby is laying on a fuzzy/fleecy white blanket.

B-Cookie’s baby feet. Cute perfect baby feet. This one is a two light set up.

1. The key light SB600 1/4 power 2 feet away from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. Background light (I don’t really remember what I did here. Oops. I think I either bounced the flash off of the ceiling onto the white sheet background, or I balanced the flash camera left with the window camera right on the white sheet background. The point is to have a nice even white background that is 1-2 stops darker than the subject.)
I am about two feet away from the subject shooting at 1/100 f4 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. I stuffed a white fuzzy/fleecy blanket into a white basket and laid the baby on top with her feet up to the edge. The hardest part can be positioning the feet. Try to get the baby fed and changed and keep the temperature in the room warm. A happy sleepy baby is easiest to work with.

More pictures of B-Cookie. I’ll try to pace myself with the baby posts. She’s just. so. cute!

Would you give this man a gun? I sure hope so. It’s a photo for his gun license. This is a one light set up.

1. Key light SB600 1/4 power slightly to camera right about 4 feet from subject through a shoot through umbrella.
2. Subject is holding a large white reflector bouncing light into the shadows under his chin.
I am shooting about 3 feet away from the subject camera settings 1/100 f3/5 ISO 100 using a 50mm 1.4 lens and a Nikon D200. The subject is about 4 feet from the background. The background is actually dark grey, but is far enough away from the lights that it falls to almost straight black.

I bribed B-boy with some candy and had a chance to play around with my reverse lens adapter. It has turned my 50mm 1.4 into a macro lens. Manual focus and aperture selection and a depth of field about the width of my finger, but for $15 I’m not complaining. There is a link to using a reverse lens adapter here.

Having fun with some new gear.
These were lit with a Nikon SB600 bare from camera right. The trick is gelling the flash to make it look more like sunset. I think I had either a 3/4 or Full CTO (color temperature orange) gel on it. You balance your flash output and your aperture to get the correct exposure for your subject. Once you have done that, you can pretty much move your shutter speed up or down until the ambient looks how you want it. In this case I had a higher shutter speed to make the background and sky darker.

I lit some candles and threw it out of focus to play with the shaped bokeh thing. It’s cute! I’m going to have to actually find a subject and create a real picture with it. A link to a shaped bokeh tutorial is here.